What James Franco Can Teach You About Content Marketing

By Daniel Chioco | Small Business

James FrancoThink you’re busy? Try living a day in James Franco’s shoes. The rising actor recently finished the premier of his latest film Oz: The Great and Powerful, but he also has a plethora of other projects on his plate. With nearly 10 projects ranging through 4 entertainment mediums, Franco is juggling as many balls as a top performer can handle.

While our schedules might not match up with James Franco’s, content creators and marketers are multitaskers as well. We have numerous projects on our plate as well as our personal life to balance in the mix. Fortunately, James Franco’s tips for multitasking and organization can help you run your next content marketing campaign more smoothly.

Collaborations Work!

It’s impossible to do everything on your own – and even if you can, two brains are better than one, right? James Franco encourages marketers to collaborate on projects for maximum efficiency and reach. To fund his project the Museum of Non-Visible Art, James Franco collaborated with Praxis to raise the money on Kickstarter. By partnering with another entity, Franco was able to enhance the effectiveness and reach of the campaign.

As content marketers and creators, we don’t always have to do everything in house. Whether you decide to pursue a content writing service or visual design agency, there are many options for collaboration in our industry.

Keep Your Ideas

Sometimes when he’s working on a film, an idea for a future project will pop into James Franco’s mind. Since he’s so in the moment of his current project, James can’t devote any more time or thought to the idea. Thus, he keeps an ideas list that he can revisit and develop in the future.

Likewise, when you’re in the midst of a marketing campaign, you might not have the time to give up to nourishing new ideas. In fact, you’ll probably want to send most of your energy on your current project instead of splitting your focus. Keeping an ideas list allows you to consider the ideas at a later time without having to worry about forgetting them. You might even think of another idea before you have the chance to revisit the list! Sometimes ideas just simmer in the back of your mind before manifesting into a full project – don’t ruin the process by discarding ideas you can’t attend to immediately!

Plan in the Morning, Plan at Night

Planning your strategy is the best way to ensure that you have enough content to keep producing and promoting. Prepare your content development strategy and tweak it as time progresses. By planning ahead of time, you won’t have to stress about content development when it’s time to begin juggling multiple projects.

Furthermore, while plans are a good thing, James Franco doesn’t like using a daily planner. Now, I don’t know about you, but I definitely need my daily planner on a day to day basis. While I won’t throw away my daily planner like James Franco, I’ll certainly take his advice and realize that sometimes planning out the details of the day can be counter-productive when trying to multitask, especially when you work in an industry as fluid as content creation and marketing!

Unleash Yourself

James Franco says he is most creative sitting on his couch or lying on his bed. Where are you most creative? Don’t feel like you have to sit at your desk to be productive. Unleash yourself and gravitate towards places that will allow you to unlock your creative genius. After all, why not pursue an environment that is conducive to your best quality work?

Have you taken any content marketing advice from the stars? Let us know in the comments section!